What are all these removable disks in Vista?

Please be gentle. I am coming from XP after years. And just learning Vista.
When I bring up "my computer" I have all these removable disks. After my E
drive, which is the internal DVD RW drive, I have 4 other drives all
labelled removable disk (F through I) yet don't have any physical drives in
my machine. I have one large HDD which is partitioned with a factory image
and the primary boot drive, C. What I can't fathom is why I have all these
removable drives. It make sense to have one because I have a pocket drive in
the machine. But 3 others?

"Steve Turner" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Please be gentle. I am coming from XP after years. And just learning
> Vista. When I bring up "my computer" I have all these removable disks.
> After my E drive, which is the internal DVD RW drive, I have 4 other
> drives all labelled removable disk (F through I) yet don't have any
> physical drives in my machine. I have one large HDD which is partitioned
> with a factory image and the primary boot drive, C. What I can't fathom is
> why I have all these removable drives. It make sense to have one because I
> have a pocket drive in the machine. But 3 others?
>
Do you have other things plugged in by USB port? Mine will show everything
plugged in as a removable drive, jump drives, camera memory card, music
player and such, but they only show if plugged in.
--
To err is human.....
But to blame someone else shows management potential.

"Steve Turner" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Please be gentle. I am coming from XP after years. And just learning
> Vista. When I bring up "my computer" I have all these removable disks.
> After my E drive, which is the internal DVD RW drive, I have 4 other
> drives all labelled removable disk (F through I) yet don't have any
> physical drives in my machine. I have one large HDD which is partitioned
> with a factory image and the primary boot drive, C. What I can't fathom is
> why I have all these removable drives. It make sense to have one because I
> have a pocket drive in the machine. But 3 others?

Do you have a multi-card (camera) reader? Either built-in or external?

Do you have a memory card reader? 4 drives sounds like one. Even if
there's no card in the slot, it reserves a drive letter. If not, then
double-click on "Safely Remove Hardware" icon, make sure the box next to
"Display Device Components" is checked, and it should tell you what they
are. You would see a USB Mass Storage Device with 4 devices under it. You
should also be able to see it in Device Manager.

This hasn't changed much, if at all, from XP.

John



"Steve Turner" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Please be gentle. I am coming from XP after years. And just learning
> Vista. When I bring up "my computer" I have all these removable disks.
> After my E drive, which is the internal DVD RW drive, I have 4 other
> drives all labelled removable disk (F through I) yet don't have any
> physical drives in my machine. I have one large HDD which is partitioned
> with a factory image and the primary boot drive, C. What I can't fathom is
> why I have all these removable drives. It make sense to have one because I
> have a pocket drive in the machine. But 3 others?

"Alex Clayton" <> wrote in message
news:O-...
> "Steve Turner" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Please be gentle. I am coming from XP after years. And just learning
>> Vista. When I bring up "my computer" I have all these removable disks.
>> After my E drive, which is the internal DVD RW drive, I have 4 other
>> drives all labelled removable disk (F through I) yet don't have any
>> physical drives in my machine. I have one large HDD which is partitioned
>> with a factory image and the primary boot drive, C. What I can't fathom
>> is why I have all these removable drives. It make sense to have one
>> because I have a pocket drive in the machine. But 3 others?
>>
> Do you have other things plugged in by USB port? Mine will show everything
> plugged in as a removable drive, jump drives, camera memory card, music
> player and such, but they only show if plugged in.
> --
> To err is human.....
> But to blame someone else shows management potential.


I have an HP printer and a DVD Ram drive. The DVD Ram drive shows up as
exactly that. Then there are the other three unknowns.

"John D. Sheridan" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> Do you have a memory card reader? 4 drives sounds like one. Even if
> there's no card in the slot, it reserves a drive letter. If not, then
> double-click on "Safely Remove Hardware" icon, make sure the box next to
> "Display Device Components" is checked, and it should tell you what they
> are. You would see a USB Mass Storage Device with 4 devices under it.
> You should also be able to see it in Device Manager.
>
> This hasn't changed much, if at all, from XP.
>
> John

HA! I have to find the "safetly remove hardware" icon. On my XP machine it
appears in the system tray. I thought it was pretty superfluous. I had
Magic's freeware virtual drive installed. I haven't attempted to do that
with Vista yet.

There is NO USB Mass Storage Device with 4 devices under it that I can see.
But it may well be. Remember, I got thing about 36 hours ago!

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:18:03 -0700, "Steve Turner"
<> wrote:

>Please be gentle. I am coming from XP after years. And just learning Vista.
>When I bring up "my computer" I have all these removable disks. After my E
>drive, which is the internal DVD RW drive, I have 4 other drives all
>labelled removable disk (F through I) yet don't have any physical drives in
>my machine. I have one large HDD which is partitioned with a factory image
>and the primary boot drive, C. What I can't fathom is why I have all these
>removable drives. It make sense to have one because I have a pocket drive in
>the machine. But 3 others?

It's just another Vista bug. I too sometimes go to Windows Explorer
and Vista lists internal drives as external or removable.

Another dumb thing is Vista will not always show details when you look
under computer.

For example I have C, E, F, G and H as internal drives plus many
externals which are usually off. Vista SHOULD show the free space as
gray text under all drives but if you use a longer than expected name
for a drive, like I do for G (Unfinished Video Archive 1) the name you
give it shows but the gray text listing the drive's free space no
longer shows. Ditto for my H drive which also has a longer name.

Vista is filled will little mistakes like this... There is plenty of
room for this detail to show but I guess the beta testers were too
dumb to catch it...or if they did report it Microsoft they left this
obvious blunder unfixed. Either way a sure sign Vista was rushed out
the door without proper testing. Releasing UNTESTED buggy software is
a hallmark of Microsoft as any seasoned Windows user knows.

Some people think I hate Microsoft for pointing out these glaring
errors. No, I point them out because people have a right to know how
messed up Vista is. You paid for it, but it obviously isn't a
finished, not nearly polished ready for release version. That's the
biggest knock on Microsoft and easily documented. They just don't care
how sloppy the "finished" product is and might patch it later, years
later or not.

Ringmaster wrote:
Some people think I hate Microsoft for pointing out these glaring
errors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not at all. Most in here realized long ago that you have no idea what
you're doing and so you blame your ineptness and incompetence on MS.
You're a weak little pile of useless crap with a big mouth stupid mouth.
Best you get lost...again...and don't bother to come back this time.
You are the main noise in here.
Otherwise, I'll just keep kicking your dumb ass all over this ng, mr
gotemeyer.

Ringmaster wrote:

<snipped>

I want to know this, Albright. When do you become an authority on
anything anti-fanboy?

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:14:00 -0700, fb <>
wrote:

>Ringmaster wrote:
>Some people think I hate Microsoft for pointing out these glaring
>errors.
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Not at all. Most in here realized long ago that you have no idea what
>you're doing and so you blame your ineptness and incompetence on MS.

As usual I document Vista flaws, instead of Frank being able to
dispute what I said does happen this bozo launches into another
tirade.

>You're a weak little pile of useless crap with a big mouth stupid mouth.

The true Frank can't be contained. You are nothing but a ignorant,
always cursing, lie spreading buffoon while you pretend to be the
ultimate Windows expert. What you are besides being nuts is the number
one Microsoft apologist.

>Best you get lost...again...and don't bother to come back this time.
>You are the main noise in here.
>Otherwise, I'll just keep kicking your dumb ass all over this ng, mr
>gotemeyer.

You know Frank, they have drugs that might help you control your rage
and your dementia. Or... continue to rant and rave and stroke out from
your elevated blood pressure and constant stress you cause yourself.
Your choice. Are you smart enough to make the correct one?